Friday, January 27, 2012

Prime Minister flees Aborigines

Extraordinary photos were published yesterday on Australia Day of the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, fleeing Aboriginal protesters:

It's yet another example of the way that Australia Day has become dominated by race politics. Here's another example. A rising young tennis star, Bernard Tomic, has a luxury $150,000 car that, as a probationary driver, he is only permitted to drive to and from training. On Australia Day he apparently breached these conditions and was pulled over several times by police. He is now claiming that he is a victim of racism (he is of Croatian descent):

Bernard Tomic allegedly accused Gold Coast police of harassing him because "you think I'm not Australian" as he was pulled over three times yesterday for breaching driving restrictions in his high-powered BMW.

Tomic, a rising star of Australian tennis, was fined $600 and copped enough points to lose his licence.

The claims began a bizarre spinout from the teenage P-plater, who can only drive his bright orange $150,000 V8 BMW M3 to and from training.

He appeared to defy police and did laps of the trendy Broadbeach restaurant strip with a mate before locking himself in his home.

Police sources said Tomic alleged officers pulled him over because it was Australia Day, referring to his European heritage.

Again, I find that extraordinary. Tomic is one of the most privileged young people in Australia. He has money, fame and public adulation. And yet when something goes wrong he immediately claims that he is a victim of racism - for being Croatian of all things.

And to return to the Aboriginal incident again, it was disappointing to read the comments on the story from Daily Mail readers. Many of the most upvoted comments spoke about Aborigines being treated as second-class citizens in Australia. It makes me wonder what people overseas have been taught to believe about the treatment of Aborigines in this country. Are they aware of the vast tracts of land owned by Aboriginal tribes? Of the positive discrimination in education, such as free tutoring and mentoring, university admissions programmes and liaison officers? Of the encouragement to Aborigines to identify positively with their own tradition, an encouragement not offered to the mainstream?

At an official level Australia Day just isn't working as a day of national celebration. Lawrence Auster made a brief comment about my Australia Day posts that "Australia sounds far more PC than America" and if you were to jet in during the lead up to Australia Day and read the papers and watch the TV you'd most likely agree. But at an unofficial level it's not so bad; there seem to be young people, in particular, who take the chance to get together and celebrate the day more positively.

What can you do if you identify with the mainstream tradition in Australia? A right-liberal like Andrew Bolt would argue that everyone should just forget about race, ethnicity and nationality and interact on a purely individual basis. But that means giving up on our larger identities; it's a solution based on an impoverished identity.

Left-liberals believe that the mainstream is a dominant group which practises racism to uphold its privileges. So the left-wing solution is for the mainstream to give up its racism and its privileges. But as we've seen many of those who push these ideas are much more privileged than the average person in the mainstream. Tomic the tennis star is more privileged than I am; so is Professor Fozdar who complained about Australians flying flags on Australia Day - she has a plum job as an academic and has received $2 million worth of grants so far in her career; so too is leading neurosurgeon Dr Tao who complained about racism in his Australia Day speech.

In other words, it doesn't seem to matter that other groups are becoming more privileged than the average Anglo - the claims of the newly privileged classes to be racially oppressed just keep growing.

So what should we do? I don't think we should give up our identity out of frustration with the abuse of racial politics. That's too high a price to pay and won't stop the attacks anyway. Nor should we think that if only we treated other groups more nicely that the attacks would go away - that's clearly not going to happen as evidenced by the Aboriginal protest yesterday.

We just have to act in a resilient, principled way, which means continuing to identify positively with our own tradition and rebutting any unfair attacks on it. We might also have to learn to close the newspapers and turn off the TV at times, and celebrate our identity in our own way, unofficially, as many young Australians seem to do.

I couldn't help but think of something you wrote when I read about Tomic's cry of racism. You have written elsewhere,

" Whatever we come up with in terms of historical identity cannot be based purely on race. Is a Frenchman of the British race? What about a Croat? Which means we're going to have to look further afield for our sense of identity or else never accept immigrants. If on the other hand we base our identity on culture then this is something that people can adapt to."

As Mark pointed out, in Tomic's case, what else could it be about but ancestry? The man is well taken care of materially and is so well integrated culturally that he himself has become one of its focal points. Race/ancestry all by itself matters for Tomic in the way he relates to the larger society, all culture, status and wealth considerations aside. Therefore race/ancestry all by itself ought to matter when a society considers whether it ought to admit ethnically distinct people like Tomic.

Also, it is surely significant that Tomic is young and therefore one of those supposed to integrate the most easily and completely.

How laughably obvious that 'equal' women still have to cower in the grasp of strong men for protection.

I didn't make the point in the post, but Gillard is opening up front-line combat roles to women, which suggests that she believes that there are no essential differences in the natures of men and women when it comes to protector roles.

But look carefully at the top photo. It is a classic example of the physical protection of a woman by a man. Look at the postures and the facial expressions.

Tell me then that you can build an army on female recruits or that it's smart for an army to demoralise men in their protector role.

To the people who say that Gillard's behaviour in the photo means that women cannot fight on the front lines: Gillard is a politican. She's unarmed, not trained in combat, and dressed impractically to defend herself should anything happen. The man with her is a bodyguard - he is trained, most likely armed, and is not wearing heels. Gillard is hardly a reflection of all women. If it had been a female bodyguard with her - and let's remember that a bodyguard's role is as a protector, irrelevant of gender - it is likely that Gillard would have reacted the same way.

No, most men would not have reacted like Gillard did, even if they were unarmed or lacked training. I've stood up to a mob several times in my life. That kind of thing comes naturally to a significant number of men.

The Australian taxpayer gives around 4 Billion dollars a year in Welfare and Aboriginal specific services to the blackfellas, a community of about a quarter of a million.

We have been doing this at a steadily increasing rate for decades. Thousands of people with only the vaguest genetic link to the indigenous population now rely almost entirely on this publicly funded industry; an industry based on nothing more concrete than guilt and the hysterical screaming down of anyone who questions it.

Good news is the general disgust expressed by almost everyone who saw those pictures. Even those of my generation brought up to see the Aboriginal people as almost a sacred higher form of life seem shocked and appalled.

Of course this does not include Journalists and academics, who are amazingly enough finding a way to blame whitey yet again.

I'm not going to defend Tomic but the story you linked to doesn't sound right.

After being given one ticket Tomic was ordered to drive straight home but was stopped and given a second ticket when he allegedly disobeyed the directive.

He was followed home by a police vehicle with lights flashing and parked his car in the driveway behind locked security gates.

Odd behaviour by the police. I've been given speeding tickets before but have never had a police car follow me home afterwards--with lights flashing. ( I even raced a police car by accident when I was young)

The article seems to imply that Tomic has a problem with a particular policeman, not with the police in general. Look, it may be that Tomic is a hoon and playing the race card, but it just may be that he has had a run in with a racist copper. I can see how people could get envious at Tomic for his superlative wealth at a young age. I've had people give me shoddy service and some personal abuse after they found out I was a doctor: there's a lot of envy in the community.

I am of Croatian descent and can tell you that some Australians think that you're not a proper Australian unless you're "Anglo". I can honestly say that I've never been the victim of any overt racism but subtle naive assumptions are always there, which you have to accept, but do annoy you after a while.

Everyone presumes that I watch soccer even though I don't like the game at all. When I go overseas on holidays, people ask me if I am going "home". Never mind that I was born at the Queen Vic in Melbourne, am tall, white, professional, and have a better knowledge of Australia and its history than most Australians. I could go on.

I don't take offense at any of this because I understand what human nature is like. People are associative thinkers and judge on appearances. It's one of the reasons why I think that you can't form a stable society from people that look markedly different.

I think it is imperative that everyone who comes into Australia assimilate into Australian culture and live according to its rules, but that does imply that host culture accept you, and not continually emphasise your difference; thereby frustrating the process of assimilation. (And once again, the majority of Australians do) I've got no problem with Australians rejecting people who don't accept their way of life, and I'll be the first to say that Australia has been an enormously tolerant and accepting country. It is probably one of the least racist countries in the world, but there are still pockets in the country when people don't accept you as Australian unless your name is Smith or Jones.

I think your quite correct in making criticism of people who won't assimilate, but I think sometimes there are elements in society that won't assimilation happen. Perhaps, they too, deserve some censure.

@ Social pathologist.Nonsense I'm pretty extreme on the criteria of who is an Aussie. I have a Croatian friend who is perfectly Australian, he is infact one of the most "non-Anglo" Australians I know.Two things about the guy though I have heard him ridiculing Australians casually. Which I think is pretty typical of immigrants.The other thing is yes I and my Aussie buddies were jealous of the guy, he seemingly was able to activate the fabled race card to get employment far past his capabilities. Also an interesting advantage when we were younger, he had constant access to Croatian women in his clannish community.While myself and my Aussie mates were finding it hard to find Aussie girls because apparently ethnic women for ethnic and Aussie girls for everyone is the dating game in Australia. To just put this point home I ended up finding a girl overseas.So there you have the rare to often untold opinion of a real Aussie.

These are little quibbles though. I'm still good mates with my Croatian buddy.

Another thing I'd like to point out is this "Anglo-radar" Anglo Aussies are supposedly supposed to have.It doesn't work anymore. I am an Anglo Aussie and I honestly cannot tell who is Ethnically Australian and who isn't anymore.In fact I've had it implied to me in public that I'm not Ethnically Anglo.I feel there is now a lot of mistrust in the Australian community for everyone.

This was the plan of Liberal Multiculturalists. To dilute the Australian identity to the point where it doesn't exist. They have succeeded in my opinion.

Mum experienced no racism of any kind(lots of male attention though.. she was a part time model when very young.. lol) Dad on the other hand did. Getting called wog dago etc...He's a tough guy(but with a heart of gold) is my Dad and always gave as good as he got, SP.

He was often tormented by the Christian Brothers at the Catholic school he attended.. One threw a black board duster at him one day. Dad promptly got up and threw it back.. Of course all hell broke loose and he was hauled out of the classroom by the Christian Brother who snarled "You will never amount to anything M!".. among other things..

Years later, Dad now doing very well with a wife and kids and a very successful business, saw this brother at a function... His immediate thought was to go up to that brother just to show him how wrong he had been, and to gloat..

But then, Dad thought better of it.. He never needed to prove anything to anyone.

"it doesn't seem to matter that other groups are becoming more privileged than the average Anglo - the claims of the newly privileged classes to be racially oppressed just keep growing."

This is a pretty general pattern. When a society actively intervenes to improve the conditions of a group of people, that group tends to make ever more claims for redress. Alexis de Tocqueville makes just this point with regard to the French revolution in his Ancien Regime.

When people think its ok to play the victim they will always find an opportunity to do so. Tomic should be quite rightly censured for his playing of the victim card and his implied borader cricitism of the country that accepted him, um yes they did, and gave him his opportunity.

I think they made the mistake of underestimating the protestors and let them get too close to the PM.It is similar to the way parents let their children think of them as friends. Then the kids abuse them.

It's interesting that the security actually regarded leftists as docile. Don't they read the world news?

It may well be that Tomic was being singled out in some way by the police. But the claim that he was being singled out because it was Australia Day and he was Croatian rather than Anglo - well, that's extraordinary.

Kathy wrote:

One threw a black board duster at him one day. Dad promptly got up and threw it back...

But you weren't supposed to throw them back!

Teachers throwing dusters (and chalk) was part of the culture at Catholic boys schools. We used to rate the teachers on their accuracy. The more accurate, the more admired the teacher.

So after a few pints this evening I was kicked back sitting by the wood stove perusing my favorite blogs and upon coming to Mr. Richardsons I about died laughing in the course of imagining what kind of story Evelyn Waugh would come up with to compliment the headline "Prime Minister flees Aborigines". Ah, for simpler, less politically correct times.-NW

I guess I am an Anglo-(Celt) if we must have a label. I married a European girl who was 18 before she spoke English.

I went to school in Australia in the 70's and 80's. About 50% of the kids at our small school were either Italian, Greek or 'Yugoslav'. Back then we got on like family. If the wog word was used(and it was), it felt like a big betrayal. It could be quite nasty back then in our town. But we moved on and intermarried and now our kids are more Australian than anything else.

There's always been scorn for Anglo-Aussies from immigrants. The nastiness went both directions. Seems non-elite Anglos cop it from everyone these days. They are the First Cause of all race-related unhappiness it would seem, if one took notice of ethnic agitators, the media and academia. It's a false and malicious poison and it's getting worse.

Two things about the guy though I have heard him ridiculing Australians casually. Which I think is pretty typical of immigrants.

Was he "hanging shit" like you do to your mates in the pub or was he being nasty? There is a world of difference.

Lot's of immigrants do criticise Australia. I know I've heard them. But their criticisms are usually exactly the same ones that Mark has made on this blog. They hate feminism, they want the police to get tougher on crime, the hate the breakdown of the family which seems to be a particular problem in Anglo culture in the moment. (Conservative Anglo writers like Theodore Dalrymple have identified the same phenomena.)They want illegal immigration stopped. ( The most strident opponents of illegal immigration are those who waited in-line, in refugee camps, to get into the country) Most migrants who come into the country are profoundly socially conservative and have the same aspirations for Australian society that Mark Richardson has. They prefer the traditional family model over the modern libertarian version. They want their streets to be safe. They also want the government to be stricter on who they let into the country. They want the anthem sung.

I've got both Croatian and Serbian patients. They all thought that the police were too soft with the tennis hooligans a few years ago. The rank and file immigrants-who never get interviewed on the telly--think these people are a disgrace.

But what stings is when Mark Richardson makes these comments he is considered a conservative social critic, but when Marko Richardovic makes the same criticisms he is a ungrateful immigrant who should go back to his own country if he doesn't like it here. Why the double standard?

As for access to women, I find that interesting. At least in Melbourne, social life was centered around the Catholic church, which usually organised dances and functions, as Australian society did in pre-Sixties Australia. There was a pressure on girls to marry "in house" not because of any overt racism, rather many parents did not want to see their daughter divorced and left destitute, something that they percieved was happening far too often in mainstream Australian society, where it was percieved people tended to be less committed to the family and more individualistic.

But the claim that he was being singled out because it was Australia Day and he was Croatian rather than Anglo - well, that's extraordinary.

Mark, I agree that Tomic may be a complete tool and is playing the race card for advantage. But there is something not right about this story. Apparently he got into trouble back in December and mention was again made of a particular policeman. The fact that he is choosing to hire a lawyer now and not pay a relatively trivial fine means either he has a massive entitlement ego( most likely) or there is something with regard to his claim.

But we moved on and intermarried and now our kids are more Australian than anything else.

Yep, I think the country needs to stop taking any more immigrants (or allow immigration which reflects the composition of the nation) for a while to let things mix and settle down. Most people just want to get on with their own business. As I've said previously, Australia has been an enormously accommodating country but I think its limits are going to be tested soon. Countries with large lumpy groups of people are never stable.

if one took notice of ethnic agitators, the media and academia. It's a false and malicious poison and it's getting worse.

True, these "ethnic advocates", which keep pushing the divisions, cause far more harm than good.

Two things about the guy though I have heard him ridiculing Australians casually. Which I think is pretty typical of immigrants.

Was he "hanging shit" like you do to your mates in the pub or was he being nasty? There is a world of difference.

No he was casually deriding us. He wasn't being nasty and we weren't being playful.As in he was not intentionally ridiculing Australians it was a slip of a tongue that betrayed a deeper attitude towards us.I don't think it was particularly unique to his Croatian background.I've heard far worse from other groups.I was just struck by how easily someone could slip into their immigrant guise and start ridiculing their host country.

I get your comment that the conflicts in the Balkans have a longstanding history to them.

But there's one thing I'd say about Anglos treating others by their ethnic origins.

If you're, say, someone from a Greek family you can play things both ways. You can identify as Australian as you wish but also keep to a more distinct ethnic identity as you wish. Most of those from southern European backgrounds I know do this - they identify with one or the other according to context, i.e. they keep to both a national (Australian) identity and an ethnic one (Greek) with the stress on each changing according to circumstance.

But it's more complicated if you're Anglo. The idea of being "Aussie" began as a term describing both our nationality and our ethnicity.

So it can be more confusing to be asked to make the term "Aussie" multiethnic. Does that mean that unlike other people an "Aussie" individual is being asked to give up his ethnic identity in favour of a multiethnic national one?

Realistically, I think the solution is to distinguish ethnicity and nationality for Anglos as well. The term "Australian" should be the national one, but Anglos should still keep to an ethnic identity using some other term (Anglo, Anglo-Celt, Aussie, skip - I think the term Anglo is OK).

Finally, although you upbraided Jesse for calling you Croat rather than Australian, that works both ways.

I work with a lot of southern Europeans, like them immensely though find there are real differences in temperament (Italian and Greek women really are more extrovertedly warm-hearted than their relatively reserved Anglo counterparts).

But they are just as aware of ethnicity as Anglos. I sometimes get called "blondie" (and I'm not even that blond anymore), there are sometimes comments about the superiority of their own ethnic culture to the Anglo one, there are sometimes barbed comments from the southern European women about blond women etc.

So I don't think it's fair to ask Anglos to turn off their ethnic radar or their ethnic identity when nobody else does.

Nonsense, SP. You're the one who has alienated yourself from Australians in this thread through your repeated undermining of the British people who are its source.

You have implied the Anglo men abandon their wives.

You have implied that Australian society is a basically envious society,

That Australian police are "racist",

That "pervasive" yet somehow never quite provable unacceptable sentiments exist among a significant number of Australians, (I must say this sounds very much like the "institutional racism" claim made by American blacks to explain their exclusion from influential positions in society),

That you are more worthy of Australianness than Anglos,

that Anglo culture is degenerate,

The list goes on, and this is all in one post!

Yet you just cannot imagine why some Anglos are having second thought about embracing non-Anglos as Australians?

You have displayed an utterly selfish, ethnocentric way of thinking and a particular lack of goodwill toward the people that opened up their home to you. You ought to be ashamed of yourself.

That's exactly right, Mark. In the US, the Anglos are usually called WASPs if they're referred to anymore at all and it's an exclusively negative identity associated with snobbery, yacht clubs and, well most of SP's complaints. If whites want to identify positively with their ancestors, they must find some non-English in the family tree.

Since most English people here intermarried with continental Europeans, and since few want to identify with a negative ancestry, the result has been the virtual disappearance of Anglo-America in the public space. Surely the Anglos in Australia have a right to resist the same happening to themselves?

In my own half British, half German family, it was always the German side that was emphasized, so much that I learned and can speak fluent German. No one really talked about our British ancestor who fought in the war for independence, which, in a healthy America, would surely be a badge of pride and a claim of ownership.

Bartholomew, I've read Vanishing American discuss the same issue at her website. Even in the South people are more likely to look to Scottish forebears than English ones - despite places like Virginia being settled largely by immigrants from southern and western England.

But there's one thing I'd say about Anglos treating others by their ethnic origins.

Hang on Mark. Nowhere did I say that all Anglo's treat others differently. Bartholomew has been particularly adept at putting words in my mouth. The Anglo-Saxon race has probably been the most accommodating and accepting race on the face of the Earth and I think Australia doesn't emphasise its English heritage enough. The fact that the country has nearly a third of its population born overseas with next to minimal social disruption is proof of its tolerance and acceptance. The majority of Anglo Saxons are good honest and accepting people. I'll be the first to say that it needs to be the dominant culture of Australia. No arguments and no quibbles on this issue. Yugoslavia was the perfect example of why multiculturalism fails. I am a strong supporter of the policy of assimilation.

My complaints aren't with Australia, my complaints are with particular Australians (I've highlighted it for you Bartholomew) who don't believe that you are a true Australian unless your Anglo. Hi Jesse7.

Realistically, I think the solution is to distinguish ethnicity and nationality for Anglos as well. The term "Australian" should be the national one, but Anglos should still keep to an ethnic identity using some other term (Anglo, Anglo-Celt, Aussie, skip - I think the term Anglo is OK).

I agree. Americans seem particular good at being able to recognise the two. Once you become an American citizen you become an American. They have a much stronger idea of citizenship which perhaps Australia should emulate.

This blog frequently upbraids people who don't want to fit into Australian society, I agree with you there. But I think what needs to be recognised is that there are also people who don't want others to fit in. (There are of course limits to what you can absorb)

I work with a lot of southern Europeans, like them immensely though find there are real differences in temperament (Italian and Greek women really are more extrovertedly warm-hearted than their relatively reserved Anglo counterparts).

You'd better be careful. Bartholomew is going to accuse you of sledging "Anglo women"

A true Australian isn't just an Anglo it's a British identity comprised of different ethnicities from the British isle that makes up the Uniquely Australian Ethnicity.Why do people not understand this.

There was no grave danger yet this chaos emerged. What we have in this post can be analyzed from a racial standpoint as much as a sex (gender) standpoint. If a minor protest can have this reaction from a female political leader, I wonder the turns of events if it was an assassination.

"On the other hand a handful of protests can be interpreted today as inherently dangerous and life-threatening. Yet this protest didn't strike me as such. Perhaps I am wrong."

No Liz.. You are spot on there.The police did say that the protests were not at life threatening levels.. They took the precaution of gathering up the PM and the opposition leader in case the scene turned ugly.

'You're either a troll or have no idea of history. It just like saying that the English and Irish were fighting each other in the 1920's because of race.'

My point was that most of us have moved on from the 1920s. The ethnic cleansing in the Balkans was the first conflict on European soil for 60 years. The first example of ethnic cleansing in Europe since the holocaust. The corollary of that is that Tomic, being of Croation descent, should be the last person to talk about racism.for someone to come from that part of the world and accuse Australians, surely one of the most peaceful and successful multicultural societies on Earth, as racist really takes gall. It demonstrates why our good will is so often abused.

out of the 4 billion dollars for Aboriginal funding, over three quarters is consumed by red tape, and all the non Aboriginals employed through Aboriginal disadvantage make a good living out of the Aboriginal industry, we would have a huge unemployment crisis if programs worked and the non Aboriginals had to find work in the maintream, very little money makes it to the ground and even less goes to Aboriginals, Aboriginals do have some land BUT!!!! its not freehold and has so many restrictions Aboriginals cant use it to benefit their communitys, only non Aboriginals are allowed to mine it or make a living not Aboriginals, all they are is forced land managers for the government, native Americans actually has land (for benefit) Australian Aboriginals dont, also yes their are programs to try and balance the scales (firmly tipped to one side) and may take as long as it did to create the one sided nature of colonialism, Its not to benefit Aboriginals either, its a good way to slowly assimilate Aboriginals (technically genocide), tuturing is good to groom people to model roles as well as mentoring, uni admissions and liaison positions all contribute to making Aboriginals labourers to fit into a system designed to benefit the rich, not Aboriginal people or communitys, haviing the freedom to live includes the freedom to choose your future, Aborignials dont get the chance, ggod try at discrediting Aboriginals, white Australia have been trying for over two hundered years to justify their treatment of Aboriginals, it didnt work then, it doesnt work now, and it wont in the future, Australia need to use their brain and deal with this stuff, its not a good reflection on Australia by leaving these old issues for the next gererations, very selfish and backward, ignoring the past has never worked, their are wars that are thousands of years old still, Australia deserve all the criticism we receive, I was taught to take responsability for my actions, thats part of growing up, Australia is still so young we still refuse to own our current problems, help your nation by confronting our issues, dont damage it by ignoring the obvious, ignorance is destroying Australia, truth, honesty and integrity are lacking in this generation